Showing posts with label Jay Gotecha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jay Gotecha. Show all posts
Releases galore but makers avoid grand promotions
8:24 AM
Film releases sans exuberant promotions have made the marketing pundits realise that they need to chalk out newer ways to engage with the audience
Juhi Chakraborty (HINDUSTAN TIMES; March 3, 2021)
After quite an underwhelming 2020, it’s finally raining theatrical releases in Bollywood with many small, medium and big films making a beeline at the box office. And what has been an integral part of film releases are the elaborate promotions including city tours, press conferences and more. But given the pandemic and rise in number of cases, is that feasible?
“I’m working on RRR, Radhe Shyam, Bhoot Police and Antim. Our strategy is to give the feel of the magic of cinemas, only then will they come and watch the film,” says Varun Gupta, founder director of MAX Marketing.
He further goes on to add that they’re not involving actors a lot in the promotions, something that they used to do pre-pandemic.
“It’ll be limited but not compromising on how we’re pitching the film as a big screen experience. We’re not looking at city tours for promotional,” he adds.
Cutting back on grand promotions is also the social responsibility on the actor’s head as even the audience would not want to venture into some place where there is a lot of crowd. Filmmaker Vipul Shah feels it’s still going to take at least six to seven months before such promotional gigs resume. “The fact that digital platforms have a wide reach, touring cities has become redundant. You’ve to work with newer ways, the world has changed. I don’t see the need of physical promotions. But yes, we’ll all have to be innovative and we’ll be fighting for people’s attention,” he explains.
Having said that, digital promotions have their own set of challenges. Jay Gotecha, who looks after marketing at Emmay Entertainment, says they released Indoo Ki Jawani in December last year, and it was challenging for them to market the film fully, using digital as a medium.
“But it was also a great learning experience as there were no physical promotions. While we’d want the actors to go all out and promote our films, for us, health and safety would be priority, not just for the actors but for the fans and cine goers as well,” says Gotecha.
Therefore, he adds, “We’ll focus on more innovative mediums to engage with our audiences. We would want them to watch our films like Satyameva Jayate 2 and Bellbottom in theatres with all safety precautions.”
Yusuf Ibrahim, the security consultant for many top Bollywood stars, says he still has no information about on-ground promotions in different cities. “There’s no protocol in place. Things will be clearer when films start this month onwards,” he says.
Even if physical promotional activities are out of question, innovation is going to be key and marketeers will have to come up with novel ways of promoting the film.
“Now that films are releasing in theatres, we can’t only be relying on digital promotions. If you expect an audience to shell out 250 bucks to watch a single film in a theatre, we need to go beyond the basic marketing of where we are just informing that a film is releasing,” concludes Gupta.
Film promotions in covid times: innovation is key
2:47 PM
When movies finally do release, in theatres or on the web, creating a buzz will now be a challenge
Juhi Chakraborty (HINDUSTAN TIMES; July 16, 2020)
The entertainment industry is slowly trying to recover from the repercussions of the Coronavirus crisis and two films, Sooryavanshi and '83, have already announced their theatrical release dates. But with social distancing and restrictions still in place, what happens to the grand promotional activities that involve huge crowds at malls and colleges, which form a very crucial aspect of a film’s release?“Marketing will change majorly and we’ll no longer see those big events and press meets. The last few films that I worked on — Street Dancer 3D (2020), Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan and Pati Patni Aur Woh (2019) — we had a lot of on-ground activities. Now nothing of that sort will be possible,” says Varun Gupta, founder director of MAX Marketing, adding strategies for theatrical films and OTT films will also differ.
Siddharth Kadam, head of marketing at Dharma Productions, feels it is now a game of waiting and watching how things pan out in the next few months. “A couple of projects have been announced for Diwali and Christmas, we don’t know what happens next as the number of cases are going up. But yes, large-scale promotional activities are no longer possible. Health and safety are priorities,” he says.
While physical multi-city promotional tours seem a distant dream as of now, digital seems to be the way forward. “I won’t be surprised if we have a virtual meet-and-greet, that will be interesting. We will have to be very particular and won’t be able to go all out. The studio partners and marketers will have to sit down and figure out smart and innovative means of promotion,” says Jay Gotecha, who looks after marketing at Emmay Entertainment.Another important aspect that film promotions will have to focus on is messaging, which will involve making the announcement that the film industry is back with a bang, to get audiences back to the theatres.
Another key aspect would be activities linked to the film, feels Gupta. While he admits that the movement of actors will get severely restricted, there will definitely be activities around a film which will help to promote it in different cities. “We will do a lot of things for Coolie No 1. While I might not take Varun Dhawan to Nagpur, for example, but I will still do something in the city which will move each and every person enough to go and watch the film in theatres,” he says, adding that it will be challenging yet exciting.
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